Aug 28, 2010

If someone now asks me what is my most memorable experience so far .. it got to be watching the match of a lifetime, the world cup in South Africa. One of the major reason why I went for South Africa for my summer holiday this year is to catch the world cup matches. Although I bought my match ticket one year ago, it didnt strike me that I was going to watch the world cup till the match day itself!! I even pinched myself to see whether I was dreaming!!:)

The match that we managed to ballot was the second round between the winner of group B and runner up of group A, which the whole time, we were rooting for an Argentinian match. We so wanted to catch Messi, Tevez and Maradona in action LIVE!!!

Soccer City at night

my ticket to entry

blowing the vuvuzela

Maradona

3 stooges

After our 7 day tour of the safari and Swaziland, we rented a car and drove all the way back to Joburg from Durban. I was extremely paranoid in the first place as we heard a lot of horror stories of car jacking with gun point in Joburg. But nevertheless, the whole experience in South Africa was amazing with friendly people. We stayed in Phumis Palace, one of the branch for Ball and Kicka. The most surprising thing was, almost all of the people we met in the hostel were going for the same match as us! We even made friends with two Hong Kong girls and a guy on the way to the match, which later on in Cape Town, we bump into the same gals! Talk about the small world!

We shared a dorm with a guy from the States and later on we bump into him again at the quaterfinal match in Cape Town. We took the shuttle to Ball and Kicka and then walked to the bus stop to catch the bus to the stadium. As it was winter, the weather was extremely cold.

The moment we reached Soccer City, we were speechless to see the view of the stadium from the bus. Soccer City was so beautifully lit at night and it can accomodate up to 90,000 fans at one time. Soccer City is situated at the township of Soweto, a place full of history and vibrant story. We visited Soweto on the first day we arrived in South Africa. Will blog about that later on. Now back to football match. It was only when I was in the stadium sitting down and watching the game, that I realised I was watching a WORLD CUP match (the world's largest and most beloved game) and not any other football match. The experience was simply too surreal!

And since we decided to be Argentinian fans for the day, Adri bought a Argentina flag while May bought a tee. I on the other hand got myself a vuvuzela, yes the sound made in the stadium was deafeaning but hey when you are in South Africa, blow a vuvuzela like one...

the leng cai Argentinians

the Mexican fans

trying to be funny..crashing into other people's photo

the world cup??

this fan trying to give us a Mexican face paint

the couple behind us

people mountain people sea

The kickoff started with the introduction of the team members on the big screen. I almost did not bring my camera along to the match fearing that someone might knicked it but glad finally decided against the idea. The atmosphere, the fans, the game, the stadium, the vuvuzela angry bees sound, the costume not forgetting, the final whistle blow and the final score 3-1 for Argentina made this a truly unforgettable experience for me and my two friends.

Aug 27, 2010

The title is related to Robben Island, a famous political prison near to Cape Town, South Africa. In fact, it was the first place that we visited when we were in Cape Town. It is also the place where Nelson Mandela and also many of the political prisoners were imprisoned during the apartheid era.

A slight history on Robben Island.

The name actually means seal island in Dutch and it is 15km away from Cape Town via boat. One needs to book in advance the ferry ticket as the tickets usually ran out quite fast. The uniqueness about the whole visit to Robben Island and the museum is that the guide is non other than the political prisoners themselves. The stories that they were telling us were sad and deep from the heart. We could feel his pain and sorrow even up to this day. He told us about how the government at that time do not allow them to read and write letters to their family fearing that they would leaked out the condition in the prison. They were using a torn mat as a chess board to entertain themselves. There were no papers and pen allowed. Food is rationed according to the skin colour. Later on, the prison in Robben Island was specifically for the blac prisoners.

Of course, there was the famous cell occupated by Mr Mandela himself. It was tiny, cold and eerie.

Initially we bought tickets for the 9am tour but we overslept and couldnt make it for the ferry. Then we used our 'beauty' and 'pity' face to beg the counter assistant to change our tickets to a later time and somehow eventhough people lining up at that time had to settle for the next 2 days ticket, we managed to change the tickets for the 1pm ferry which we gladly taken up. Although, the return ferry was seriously delayed, we managed the capture the one of the most beautiful sunset in Robben Island. With that, it was the perfect end for our trip to Robben Island.

Table mountain, lion's head, Green Point stadium & Signal Hill in one shot(taken while on ferry)

Aug 21, 2010

1. Pride of Prejudice by Jane Austen
Mr Darcy is definately every girl's first crush!!

2. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Amazing storyline with a twist at the end

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K Rowling
The third book is always my favourite

4. PS I Love You by Cecelia Ahern
I cried when I read the first letter though subsequently the storyline was not that great

5. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson
Great book by a great author..plus a movie coming out soon with Daniel Craig as the male lead

6. Can You Keep A Secret by Sophie Kinsella
Funny and my favourite Kinsella books though I never bothered reading her shopaholics

7. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
A boy survive a tiger..

8. Slumdog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup
I love the movie..very touching and funny. Reading the book gave a different feeling.

I remembered I do not read much as I do now. Most of the books I got for quite a bargain as my work place provide 40% discount twice a year for books. And my dream house is to have a large book shelf with all my books.

Aug 20, 2010

A short post on something related to South Africa. Havent really sorted out the photos for blogging although I had posted most of the nice ones on fb. Somehow I think SA is more colourful that I initially thought so..

This trip was meant for a break between studies. After did some research on the internet, I decided to ask May to accompany me to Linlith gow. May is considered one of my closest friend in uni probably both of us are quite close in terms on age gap. So we went on a little weekend trip to this place which is about 30 mins away from Edinburgh. Plus the town is full of history being the famous Linlithgow Palace which was once home to the famous Queen of Mary Scots. If England has Queen Elizabeth, in Scotland, Queen Mary is ths famous queen.

the exterior of the palace

my favourite jacket and scarf

my bestie at uni :)

At one time, she claimed the crowns of four nations - Scotland, France, England and Ireland. However, after her second marriage unsuccesful, Queen Mary fled to England to seek shelter from her cousin Queen Elizabeth I but end up being imprisoned for nineteen years as the Queen of England feared of the power that Queen Mary had. She was executed when she was only 44 years old. Her life story remained a sad one and left a deep impression in the hearts of the Scottish. If you noticed, this post is indirectly related to the previous post on the Tudors family.